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Buying a Domain From a Cybersquatter
Nevo writes "A partner and I are in the planning stages of a business. We've decided on a name that we'd like to use but the domain name is already registered. The owner has a single 'search' page up (similar to the one at www.goggle.com)... clearly not a legitimate business interest, but since we don't own a trademark on this name it doesn't qualify as bad faith, I don't think. Does anyone have any experience buying domains from these operators? Do you have any advice on how to approach the owners of these domains to get them at a reasonable cost?"
i recently had an experiance buying a domain name from a squatter. we promiced to pay them £100 for the domain name, and then they sent us their fasthost account details, without us paying them. we thought we would take the opertunity to simply take the domain name anyway, and transfer it to our own account without payment.
hopefully you could try and get this idiot to do something similar, ie some details to see that the domain is in the account as "good faith" before you hand over any money.
Murder in the first. ;)
You married to the mob?
Could be a story in that.
A co-worker of mine did that for a while.
He purchased a bunch of green bullshit names and then put add pages on them. When people contacted him about purchase he would be like, well it means a lot too me and I want to start a site, but I haven't done much yet, what is it worth to you?
Generally that was the end f it, but pretty much any offer was accepted.
I'd like to meet your coworker in the alley behind where you work. If you give him a whole bunch of whiskey so that he can barely stand before he gets there, maybe I could offer you some money once the trunk of my car shuts?
...
It would mean a lot to me
Just wait until it expires, then swoop in and register it. /then email the squatter and ask them if they want to buy it back
Give us the address, we'll give his server so much traffic he'll be begging to give the domain away.
Actually, if you decide that you can live without and register a completely different address then tell them all of the alternative versions they've missed that you can come up with. Even if it is just a small fee per variation for them to register you are doing your bit to make the whole thing less profitable.
"Here's a non-exhaustive list of possible alternatives we are considering: *insert half a bajillion randomly-created combinations of letters (checked for potential trademarks or alread-existing sites)*."
Sounds like fun. ;)
I'd like to meet your coworker in the alley behind where you work. If you give him a whole bunch of whiskey so that he can barely stand before he gets there, maybe I could offer you some money once the trunk of my car shuts?
...
It would mean a lot to me
Someone mod this guy up. He's got the right idea.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
[...] It's only a domain name, there are lots of others, [...]
Yeah, lots of good domain names aren't yet taken by squatters. Like hedgehogtelescopebag.com and hjrooskkxgcbsifyywhflg.com, and many others.
do you need to rent a baseball bat?
Depending on the part of the world he is located in you may have to use a cricket bat. Don't worry, Gartner says that most hired thugs cross skill on these alternatives with a very shallow learning curve.
It's nothing personal; just business.
When watching movies, people cheer when the douchebag that keeps saying this gets shot to death (or fed into a wood chipper, or boiled alive, etc.)
yeah. use yahoo mail.
Only on Slashdot could a post that begins with an admission that the author can't even type properly, and then meanders off into speculation, supposition and baseless invective be rated "Informative".
And a good day to you, sir! And what, pray tell, crawled up and died in your lower colon on this fine morning?
I'm pretty sure you can get yahoo.com for almost nothing. Unfortunately, you also have to take the company attached to the domain name.
(Our original name was 25 characters and we got down to 7)
Aarrggh?
It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
This, please God, this.
sentence
Bow-ties are cool.
Also analogies are evil
Nooooo! Not my precious car analogies!
Bow-ties are cool.
I am a Nigerian Prince with several million dollars held by the Nigerian government. I need your domain name to unlock the funds. As a sign of good faith please transfer your domain to me. In consideration I will give you 10% of the funds when they are released.
I think that has the right balance of wealthy and desperate.
Clearly money well spent.
Wrong site. I believe you are looking for Craigslist.
"But this one goes to 11!"
No no no, it's "Aaaaauuuugggghhhh", from the back of the throat.